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Title: Caring for Others: Early American Approaches to Social Welfare


1
Caring for Others Early American Approaches to
Social Welfare
  • How Early America
  • provided aid to the poor, the elderly and the
    sick.

2
First A Common Lexicon what do the words mean
in public context?
Before the 1980s, the venerable game of Life
included a poorhouse those with too little
money at the end of game went to the poorhouse
they were losers in the game of life.
3
Meanings in public policy and in the popular mind
Poor Any person unable to care for
himself/herself in early American colonies no
distinction was made for a persons status,
morals, sanity or other defining factor taking
care of the poor was a factor of maintaining
public order (Englands history from 1450 to 1650
was a vital factor of this concern). Outdoor
Relief Public policy varied systems for
helping those in need without institutionalizing
them social security, mainstreaming programs,
private assistance programs are forms of outdoor
relief. Popular Mind varies a great deal
outdoor relief may cost more in tax-support than
an institution and so may be too expensive, but
provides dignity to those in need critics
charge that recipients are often not deserving,
while supporters argue that such programs reduce
other problems, like crime.
4
Further definitions
  • Poorhouse
  • Public policy a publicly (tax) supported
    institution for taking care of the poor and
    destitute those in need are institutionalized.
  • Popular mind those in need cannot contribute
    much to society, they are often perceived as
    failures.
  • Charity
  • Public Policy caring for the poor made for an
    orderly society by 1) preventing or reducing
    social disorder 2) by confirming the wealthy as
    doers of good deeds as sermon in 1753 put it,
    poverty actually makes money a blessing, for it
    permits men to act as stewards of Gods wealth.
  • Popular Mind the wealthy person who gave of his
    own wealth to help the poor deserved his wealth
    and his superior place in the community.

5
The Central role of the Polity
  • A polity is a socially organized body of men who
    are governed by specific rules and regulations.
    A nation is a polity. So too are local and state
    governments polities. In the American federal
    system of government, the rules of the local
    polities can be different from one another.
    State constitutions all place limits on what
    local governments can and cannot do. The Federal
    Constitution of the U.S. likewise places limits
    on what states and local governments can and
    cannot do. For example, the 13th amendment to
    the constitution put an end to slavery by
    forbidding any part of the nation to allow its
    existence.
  • A politys rules can change over time, as ideas
    change, and ideas of right and wrong are changed
    by circumstances. In regards to caring for those
    who lack the means to care for themselves,
    American ideas have changed a great many times in
    the past. This is also true for many other
    societies and polities.

6
Debate over the role of assistance is as old as
the existence of organized communities.
  • Ancient city states were ruled over by tyrants,
    assisted by a priestly bureaucracy, to provide
    water food surpluses. Arguments over the role
    of public assistance began immediately.
  • That the strong might not injure the weak, in
    order to protect the widows and orphans . . . I
    have in Babylon set up these my precious words,
    written upon my memorial stone, before the image
    of me, as king of righteousness.
  • The Code of Hammurabi, king of Babylon, 4000 BCE.

7
Greek and Roman Law to provide aid to the
destitute
  • Philanthropy was word coined by the Greeks
    (philos love anthropos human) to use in
    framing a philosophy for keeping order by
    giving aid to those in need.
  • Justice commands us to have mercy on all, to
    give everyone his due. Cicero, ca. 60 BCE
  • Both societies completely subjugated women and
    children were subjected to harsh punishments in
    order to learn to stand on their own feet.

8
Obligation to give (and accept) assistance
  • In Deuteronomy, Yahweh, the god of the
    Israelites, ordered the people to loveth the
    stranger, in giving him food and raiment
    (clothes).
  • Jewish scholars (rabbis) extended on this by
    arguing that a man who is sick or old, but takes
    none out of pride, is guilty of bloodshed in
    that he weakens the community.

9
The earliest goal of aid -- ORDER
  • Most of the early arguments for helping those in
    need, whether philosophical, governmental or
    theological, were based on the need for
    community order, not on abstract concepts of
    goodness, virtue or right and wrong.
  • Early societies were fragile one drought, one
    famine, one disorder could destroy a city or an
    entire society. Aid was designed to reduce the
    odds of this.
  • The ideas of Confucius (ca. 480 BCE) were based
    on personal behavior that would preserve and
    extend community order.

10
Christian concepts of charity
  • The teachings of Jesus that a refusal to aid
    those in need was a sin (a violation of the
    will of God) was closely related to Judaic
    thought. It also reflected the ideas of
    moralistic religious thinkers like Buddha (ca 5th
    century BCE) who had argued that life (and
    ultimate salvation) was based or moral behavior,
    and that goodness to others was one of the
    foundations of moral behavior.
  • One of the strongest attractions of early
    Christianity was the emphasis the church placed
    or giving help to those in need. When
    Constantine became emperor of Rome (316 CE) he
    argued that, as emperor, he was the faiths
    bishop of those outside the church and thus
    could extend Christianity by uniting state and
    faith to serve the people. This was a major
    change from the ideas of early tyrants who
    believed the people existed to serve the state.

11
Feudal obligation
After the collapse of Roman law in the 5th
century AD, church and state combined again in a
feudal system (feudum in Latin meant a specific
domain in which one maintained order). The
liege lord of a specific domain swore an oath
(administered by a priest) in which he promised
to protect the inhabitants of his domain. Some of
the taxes collected for the domain were used to
care for those who could not care for themselves.
12
The Church Hospitales
Middle Age hospitales (for giving aid
hospitality) were run by the Church and provided
more than medical care. Orphans were given a
place to live, as were the aged, the blind and
crippled, some classes of the insane, lepers,
and long-distance travelers. These services,
which grew as more cities were built, were the
closest Medieval equivalent to the modern social
service agencies. Because of this tradition,
early American social service agencies were often
linked to churches.
A Middle Age hospitale serving food to
impoverished souls in need.
13
Crime and Insanity
Middle Age society, like ancient societies, were
uncertain how to deal with insanity. Usually
drawing upon religion, most communities treated
those who exhibited mental illness as either
specially marked by God, or somehow immoral and
therefore evil. Generally, those deemed
dangerous were killed, leaving those not
dangerous in church care.
14
Who were the deserving poor?
  • English law struggled to determine those who
    deserved help from those who were lazy or
    criminal (increasing state power in the process)
  • 1349 law fixed maximum wages, restricted travel
    of unemployed and compelled out-of-work to accept
    any job (during Black Death era, when population
    dropped by 30-40).
  • 1531 law provides blody whypping for abel
    bodied beggars.
  • 1536 extension of 1531 law, allowing death
    penalty for undeserving beggars who have been
    repeatedly punished.
  • 1572 law authorizes justices of towns and shires
    to assess a special tax for funds for aiding
    those who deserve relief from economic distress.

15
Elizabethan Poor Law
  • Essentially the 1601 law combined all previous
    laws. It specified 3 groups of poor
  • Children to be cared for and trained
    (apprenticeships, in use since ancient times)
  • Able-bodied providing work (through force if
    necessary)
  • Deserving poor (aged, infirm, feeble, and
    insane) to be provided for in various
    institutions.

16
The New World
From the moment news of America spread across
Europe, some thinkers and dreamers imagined that
the new land might be an eden, free of poverty
and want. Promoters of colonies distributed
pamphlets that advertised the availability of
land for all. English colonists set out to
seize the opportunities in America, but brought
with them the cultural heritage of the old
world, including its conflicting views of
poverty, illness, aid and care.
17
How colonies began
  • Colonies were organized business ventures for
    profit.
  • A successful colony required funding, ships and
    supplies, trained soldiers for protection and a
    willing group of settlers.
  • The English economy was growing in the late
    1500s, so few wanted to colonize for economic
    reasons. War with Spain also slowed the
    colonization plans.
  • The Crown did not wish to pay for colonies, so
    instead offered charters (legal and economic
    privileges) to private investors who would
    establish a colony.
  • The most likely groups for finding willing
    colonists were religious dissenters Protestants
    who felt the Church of England (Anglican Church)
    was not sufficiently reformed from Catholicism.
    Dissenters found a new world to be a chance
    for creating a new religious community.

18
English influence on the colonies
Generally, the English practices influenced
American practices in four ways 1. There was a
PUBLIC responsibilty to help those in need.
American towns usually gave the job to an
overseer of the poor just as in
Britain. 2. Assistance was overwhelmingly LOCAL,
based on the idea that neighbors could know who
REALLY needed help. 3. If a person in need had
KIN, then THEY should help in order to reduce
public cost. Most communities DENIED public
assistance to those who had family
nearby. 4. Children were treated as special cases
their care always an element of moral-work
training.
19
New technology boosts knowledge
The perfection of moveable type in the new
printing press, revolutionized the spread of
information in Europe and would help unify the
colonies in America.
20
Additional factors in changing the European mind
about groups, organization, and production.
  • New methods of measurement and record keeping
  • Increases in the processing of wool led to
    factories of two-three dozen workers in France
    and Italy. Work schedules were created to
    organize workers and time-keeping was established
    new clocks are created.
  • Double-digit bookkeeping created to keep
    accounts and inventories.
  • More precise tools for measuring distance,
    weight, and volume developed, which also
    influences map-making and navigation,
  • New navigation instruments are developed to
    better determine latitude and astronomical tables
    printed for ship use.

21
Indentured servitude
Before the late 1600s, the death rate was greater
than the birth rate. American population grew
only from immigration, and many immigrants were
little better than term slaves men and women
who served for a term of years before being free
to make their own choices.
22
The skills trades
Necessary skills were acquired largely by
training apprentices young workers or
indentured servants who learned by working with a
skilled craftsman (such as a shoemaker, left).
They eventually acquired a certificate or license
to practice the trade as a craftsman. Shoemakers,
cabinet makers, home builders, cigar makers,
brewers, soap-makers and the like were all
skilled craftsmen.
23
Worth ones salt
A colonial home often had members of an extended
family, some apprentices, and hired workers.
Each person sat at the table according to his
value in the groups economy. Those who sat
closest to the salt dish (salt being the only
preservative and often the only spice) were
consider worth their salt.
By contrast, people who could contribute little
to the family workload very small children, the
old, the infirm were accorded little value, and
often little respect.
24
Land as a method of saving and creating social
order
  • The colonies had lots of land, too few laborers
    (another definition laborers are those who
    work for others and receive wages even in early
    America, there were more laborers than
    self-employed workers.

Indentured servants often received land at the
end of their labor contracts land was cheap to
give and it encouraged men to support
themselves , reducing the need for welfare in
the forms of outdoor relief and/or
institutionalization.
25
Social Welfare in the colonies
  • Most colonies followed English practices
    relying on outdoor relief and local controls
    poor were auctioned to local farmers as labor
    local men placed bids to supervise aged and
    indigent persons (since the lowest bid prevailed,
    abuse was common) poorhouses and similar asylums
    existed only in larger towns like Boston, New
    York, Charleston.
  • Few prisons existed common punishments were
    fines, whipping, and death by hanging. Mental
    illness was generally seen as the product of a
    corrupted soul.
  • The colonies mostly expected each person, each
    family to be responsible for his/their own welfare
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